Seth Barton, editor of Expert Reviews, said the price cut was a “canny move” by the company co-founded by Bill Gates.

He said: “By knocking £30 off and adding a game into the bundle, Microsoft have destroyed the price differential with Sony, without having to drop their RRP.

“They can now sit back and wait to see how well it does, and if it does very well, they can add another game into the deal.”

Titanfall has been developed exclusively for the Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PCs by one of the makers of the best-selling Call of Duty franchise.

Mr Barton added: “I don’t think it’s in either company’s interest to launch a price war at this point in time.

“According to Chart-Track, the Xbox One was selling 1.5 less consoles than the PS4 in the first three months since launching.

“So they were obviously on the back foot and the price was hurting them.”"The only problem is that it is likely to annoy lots of people who have already bought an Xbox One, and a lot of them did so because they wanted Titanfall.

“It is the most anticipated game in all existence right now.”

The PS4 has outsold the Xbox One despite having more demand than supply.

The console have been like gold dust with many shops quickly selling out of PS4 units.

Last week PlayStation UK Managing Director Fergal Gara has said those looking to buy a PS4 should not expect to find one easily available until April.

Speaking to MCV, Mr Gara said: “I can’t work it out precisely. But based on what I’ve seen so far, I think it is going to be tricky until around about April.

“You might get a fortnight or a week here or there where it is more available, but we should be back to free supply by about April.

“That’s our best guess. It might be a little earlier than that, or it might be a little later. But we’ll get there.”

The Microsoft Game Studios corporate vice president was asked on Twitter when players could expect Games With Gold to make its way to the Xbox One, to which he responded: ”Answer to this will be coming fairly soon.”

Originally conceived as a limited-time promotion, before becoming a permanent service, Games with Gold offers Xbox Live Gold subscribers two free games each month. Titles downloaded via the promotion remain in that user’s library permanently, and will not be deactivated if players unsubscribe from the Gold service.

Gamers in more than a dozen countries started snapping up the new-generation Xbox One consoles on Friday as Microsoft battled Sony to be at the heart of Internet age home entertainment.

Xbox fans queued at consumer electronics shops to be among the first to get their hands on Microsoft’s beefed up system that extends beyond gaming to online films, music, social networking and more.

A man in New Zealand, 24-year-old Dan Livingstone, become the first person in the world to officially own an Xbox One. He said he was immediately retreating for five days to play with it.

International time zones meant New Zealand was the first country to launch the console.

Australia was next in the global roll out. The distinctive Sydney Tower turned green and another 3D projection beamed onto the water beneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge to mark the midnight launch.

In California, people were also eager to get one of their own.

“It’s a big upgrade; a big change,” said 23-year-old Jonathan Guerrero, who staked out a spot at the front of the line at a Best Buy electronics shop in Northern California 13 hours before the consoles went on sale a minute into Friday.

“You are jumping from okay to super great.”

Hassan Ali said he queued to get an Xbox One because he has an ideal television for the rich graphics pumped out by the console. He described his set as a 3-D, high-definition, smart television with a 65-inch screen.

“It’s kind of amazing that you can look at the game and it looks like real life,” said 34-year-old Ali.

Sony last week unleashed its new champion in the long-running console war, getting a slight jump on Microsoft heading into the prime holiday shopping season.

The Xbox One, successor to the Xbox 360, the top-selling console in North America, debuted at a price of US$500 while Sony’s PS4 is priced at US$400.

Sony said it sold more than a million PS4 consoles in the 24 hours after its release on November 15.